By Hebrew Seminary President Rabbi Dr. Douglas Goldhamer

1. Go to your mi’at meekdash (small holy place) and sit on a comfortable chair with your back in the upright position, and your feet planted firmly on the floor. Wear comfortable clothing and loosen up your tie or belt.

2. Breathe in deeply and gently through your nostrils and as you breath in count silently 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. (This is the numerical equivalent of Yod) Without holding your breath between inhaling and exhaling, exhale through your nostrils silently, counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. (The exhaling should take half as long as the inhaling.)

3. When you inhale, or exhale, you must maintain the internal dynamic that you are breathing in the Life Force of God, and that your breath and His breath are becoming One. You must recognize within the depths of your soul that you are becoming one with the Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh.

4. As you breath in through your nostrils, your vision should not be God‘s breath coming in through your nostrils, but you should visualize with your koach dimyon (imagination) that God‘s Breath or Energy is filling your head area. And, as you breathe out, through your nostrils, your vision should not be God‘s Breath leaving your nostrils, but God‘s Breath or Energy flowing from your head into your heart and through your heart into the world.

5. Repeat this cycle five times.

When we breathe in God‘s Ruach, with kavvanah, we create Ruach HaKodesh; that is, we become One with the Holy Spirit.

Copyright © 2015 by Douglas Goldhamer and Peggy Bagley